The Life Of A Guardian
by DragonShadow
Summary: Knuckles has always stood watch over the master emerald, but how did he get there?


The Life of a Guardian  
  
  
Knuckles sat on the steps in front of the Master Emerald, his eyes half closed in almost a trance. He'd been like that for a long time... Minutes... Hours... Days... He couldn't tell anymore. Time seemed to blend into one continuous ball, moving forward without him.   
  
He couldn't remember anything before he'd come here, and he'd never wondered either until very recently... That girl... Tikal... She'd shown him things he'd never seen before, at least never thought he'd seen. Now though he wasn't sure... Everything she'd shown him seemed... Familiar somehow...  
  
"Where did I come from..." He whispered softly to the gentle breeze that whipped across Angel Island. It was a question he'd never dared to ask before, lest he find an answer he didn't like, but now he just had to know.  
  
His eyes opened alertly as he detected movement behind him. He whirled quickly, bringing his spiked fists to bear in front of him, but found nothing. Only the Master Emerald continuing in its rotation on the platform at the top of the sacred steps. Suddenly the Master Emerald gave off a sharp glow. Quick, but bright enough to notice. That must have been what had alerted him.  
  
Slowly he lowered his claws and gazed curiously at the Emerald as it continued its soft pulsing. What could be causing this? It had never happened before in all the time he'd been guarding it. Whatever it was it didn't really seem to be affecting anything, just kind of... There.  
  
[Step forward guardian] Knuckles took a quick step back as a voice seemed to rebound directly inside his head, startling him. [Step forward] the voice repeated, not sounding threatening or enticing, merely suggesting. Slowly he came to recognize the voice, he'd heard it not too long ago.  
  
"Tikal?" He asked, taking a few steps towards the Emerald.  
  
[Knuckles, guardian of the Master Emerald and all of Angel Island] Knuckles took a few more steps towards the emerald, eyeing it suspiciously and hopefully at the same time.  
  
"I am Knuckles... What's going on here?" He demanded.  
  
[You wish the answers of how you came to be here... Do you not know?] The voice asked.  
  
"No I don't... I don't remember anything." He replied, holding his hands limply at his sides.  
  
[Then perhaps after so long you should know] The voice said as the emerald began to glow with a sharp white light, causing Knuckles to cover his eyes with the painful intensity. ________________________________________________________________________________  
  
Knuckles snuck around the side of the building, looking around him cautiously. He didn't see anyone approaching from anywhere, so he took a mad dash across the street to the adjacent building.   
  
He leaned his back against the wall, making sure nobody was around before slamming his claws into the side of the building, beginning to scale it to the top. Suddenly he heard a voice coming from the roof he was just climbing to.  
  
"Boo!" Knuckles hands flew up in surprise, letting go of the wall. He fell five feet to the ground, landing hard on his back and gasping as the wind was knocked out of him. "My you're jumpy today." Tikal said, jumping down to land beside him on the ground.  
  
"Princess..." Knuckles said, rolling over to get to his feet. "How did you get up there?"  
  
"Why so formal? It's Tikal not Princess. And I got up there the same way you were, just because I don't have these..." She reaches over and took his hand, tapping the tiny claws protruding from it. "Doesn't mean I can't climb."  
  
Knuckles grumbled a bit, smirking. "Alright alright... So you caught me. What now?"  
  
"Well maybe..." She stopped when she saw her father walking away from the sacred temple towards one of the buildings designated for meetings, his advisers and generals following him.  
  
"What's that about?" Knuckles asked, following her gaze.  
  
"I don't know... My father's been acting strangely for a while, he's even talking about going to war." Tikal responded, looking down worriedly.  
  
"Ah I'm sure nothing will come of it. He's got to know better then to try to start a war right now, there's no way we could conquer anybody right now."  
  
"Not without help... Not without power..." She said, looking up suddenly. "We've got to get in there and listen to their conversation!"  
  
"What? Spy on the chief!? You're insane!" He exclaimed before suddenly remembering whom he was talking to. "Uh... I'm sorry... Princess..."  
  
"Well maybe I am going insane but I have to be sure... Come on!" She said before taking off across the village, not even waiting for him. He caught up to her as she was planting her ear up against the door flap, straining to hear inside.  
  
"Tikal..." Knuckles whispered fiercely, grabbing her shoulder and dragging her around to the back of the hut. "I'm sorry to be rough... But it'd be easier from back here..." He said as he brought up one clawed fist and placed it against the rather soft material of the wall. He dragged his claws along it in a straight line, making two almost undetectable holes they could listen through.  
  
"You appear very proficient at this... who else have you spied on?" She asked in a suspicious whisper.  
  
"Uh... Sorry... Can't hear you over the chief." Knuckles replied, drawing a slight chuckle from Tikal. They both lean into the tears to listen in on the conversation inside the building.  
  
"We can't win in a direct conflict right now, we're too few in numbers from the harsh winter." One of the Chiefs advisors said.  
  
"We can't let this insult go unanswered. It'll make us seem soft, we HAVE to retaliate." Another voice said.  
  
"How?" The Chiefs voice responded, sounding exasperated with the whole thing.  
  
"The Chaos Emeralds. We have them at our disposal at any time."  
  
"Oh no..." Tikal gasped beside Knuckles, quickly covering her mouth with one hand.  
  
"Hmm... Perhaps." The Chiefs voice said thoughtfully.  
  
"No... the emeralds belong to the Chao... If they try to take them..." Tikal said worriedly as she got to her feet, wobbling a bit in her panic.  
  
"Princess?" Knuckles said, standing up beside her worriedly. "Are you alright?"  
  
"I have to speak to father." Immediately she turned and walked around to the front of the building, heading inside. Knuckles just looked down a bit, then turned away. He wasn't needed here anymore; she could handle everything that needed to be handled.  
________________________________________________________________________________  
  
Knuckles walked along the street, watching as the warriors of the village muddled about in their daily routines that might not be so daily soon. He couldn't help but wonder what was happening with the Chief, he didn't quite know what this was about Chaos Emeralds or Chao but he knew if it worried Tikal then there had to be something to worry about.  
  
He walked up the main staircase to the rear entrance to the village, heading through the solid double doors and looking around him. He'd been here a couple times before, but had never really looked around too much.   
  
He walked out from the door slowly, the wooden bride spanning over the gently flowing stream leading to another path that went all the way up to a shrine in the middle of the field. Near the shrine he spotted Tikal sitting in the grass cutely, looking around her for something.  
  
"What's going on here..." Knuckles asked quietly as he just walked over to the bride to lean against one post, watching her. From seemingly out of nowhere a group of blue things with stubby looking arms and legs approached her, tiny pink wings on their backs waving gently in the breeze.  
  
Knuckles just watched curiously as Tikal petted them gently, talking but too far away for him to hear what she was saying. He simply watched her curiously, not quite sure if he should interrupt or not. Suddenly he felt himself sliding off the post, but before he could react he slid off of it, plunging into the water. He just let himself lay there, his entire body submerged except for the tip of his nose so he could still breathe. How embarrassing.  
  
Through the distortion of the water he saw Tikal lean over the edge of the ditch, looking down at him concernedly. "Are you okay?" He could barely hear her with the water.  
  
Knuckles sat up in the water, it only came up to his waist. "Yeah I'm fine... I was just taking a walk and... tripped..."  
  
"Well be more careful... you could have gotten hurt..." Tikal chided him gently, giving him a hand out of the stream. He looked over at the shrine but the things from before were all gone like they'd never been there.  
  
"Right... I'll keep that in mind..." He said, putting one hand to his head confusedly.  
  
"Good." Tikal said simply before turning and heading back to the village.  
  
"Where are you going?" Knuckles asked, running to catch up with her.  
  
"I have to talk to my father again, I can't let him take the emeralds... I just can't."  
  
"Emeralds?"  
  
"Don't worry about it..." She said, speeding up with the obvious intention of losing him. He stopped and let her go, looking just plain confused.  
  
"What is this all about..." He mused to himself, putting one hand on his chin and heading back out into the field. He spared the shrine one more curious glance before heading past it to explore a bit.  
________________________________________________________________________________  
  
He returned several hours later at nearly midnight to find the shrine ablaze, the soft glow of the fire giving everything around it a reddish tint. "What the..." He approached slowly, staring at the flames in surprise. "What's going on here?"  
  
He started to head back to the town to tell someone, but he saw a still form lying on the grass, completely still. It was surrounded by the bodies of the things he saw earlier. He approached slowly, finally recognizing the larger form. "TIKAL!" He ran up to her as fast as he could, kneeling down beside her and turning her over. She was unconscious, but she would recover in time.   
  
"What happened here... Huh?" He looked up at the shrine in time to see a shimmering form moving down the steps. "Who're you!?" He demanded furiously, standing up and clenching his fists tightly in front of him. The figure continued to approach, the glow from the fire making it look like molten lava moving towards him.  
  
"On no..." He looked down to see Tikal sitting up, watching the figure with a horrified look on her face. "Chaos..." She struggled to her feet, leaning on knuckles slightly. Her eyes look down at the unconscious bodies lying at their feet as the figures eyes seem to follow.  
  
"Tikal what's going on? What is that thing?" Knuckles asked, moving aside as the figure approached them, following their every move.  
  
"It's Chaos... He's angry because they hurt the Chao... We have to calm him down! He could destroy everything!"  
  
"Well he's not destroying anything here!" Knuckles exclaimed, stepping forward, bringing his clawed fists up in front of him. The figure raises its own arms, sharp spikes of water protruding from them, looking very sharp and very deadly.  
  
"No Knuckles! You can't fight it!" Tikal exclaimed, running around past Chaos while Knuckles had it distracted.  
  
"Where are you going!?" Knuckles yelled, trying to keep his distance from the watery figure as it tried to approach him slowly.  
  
"To stop it... I can't let it run rampant..." She said as she ran up the staircase to the shrine, looking around her at the seven emeralds on their pillars surrounding the master emerald. "Oh seven keys to unlock the gate... Come out now and this menace shall abate!" She yelled, putting her arms up towards the master emerald.  
  
"What..." Knuckles thrust one hand in front of his face to guard against the piercing light emanating from all eight emeralds. "Tikal!" He screamed in a panic, not seeing her anywhere as he peeked through his fingers, searching for her.  
  
He let out a shocked gasp as he felt his feet leave the ground, causing him to float upward in mid air. He could see Chaos floating similarly, moving towards the master emerald as it tried to get away from it.  
  
A huge rending sound filled the air, setting Knuckles hair on end with its intensity. He whirled, looking back towards the entrance to the city to see it disappearing beneath the land; the rending sound was that of the island tearing itself free of the mainland.  
  
"What's going on!? The shrine's... floating!" Knuckles exclaimed in panic as he turned back towards the emeralds, trying his best to see anything through the pure white light. "Tikal!" He yelled worriedly.  
  
Suddenly the light faded, dropping Knuckles hard to the ground. He sat up quickly and looked about him. Everything looked as it should, but Tikal was now gone. When he looked back to where the city should be there was nothing but empty sky, the island was still floating.  
  
"Tikal..." He ran up to the shrine, looking about him desperately. He didn't see her anywhere. "Tikal!" He shouted again, looking over at the master emerald. Something in it caught his eye, making him examine it closer. Suddenly he knew what he had to do. He would guard the emeralds so Chaos could never be freed again...  
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[You spent your life on guard, honing your physical abilities beyond that of any others of your race. You also spent most of your time in a trance, prolonging your life to one many centuries longer than natural and after time you simply forgot about everything... But now, it is time to live life as you have been]  
________________________________________________________________________________  
  
Knuckles snapped away suddenly, looking out across the open sky as always, everything seemed normal. He turned and looked back at the emerald now, it looked just like it always had, slowly spinning on its pedestal. He turned and looked at the sky again, spotting a little orange figure heading towards the island. That must be what had woken him from his trance.  
  
He got up and ran to the edge of the island, watching Tails curiously. He looked about to faint from exhaustion as he flew slowly upwards, reaching out his hands desperately towards the rim of the island.   
  
Knuckles walked over and looked down at him, snapping one hand out and grasping his just as his tails gave out, nearly sending him plummeting into the ocean. He hauled Tails onto the island, letting him drop limply to the ground, not even having the strength to moan or pant properly.  
  
"Are you trying to kill yourself?" Knuckles asked. He received only a pained whimper in response. "Alright come on..." He grabbed Tails then, slinging him over his shoulder like a carpet and carrying him to a small stream he knew about so Tails could drink and collect himself.  
  
After a little while Tails finally looked half alive as he sat up, sipping at the water thirstily. "Okay, now what did you think you were doing?" Knuckles asked.  
  
"I wanted to... See if I could... make it..." Tails gasped out before taking another long swig of the water.  
  
Knuckles rolled his eyes at this. "Well next time bring a parachute so you can get back down without killing yourself." He said, crossing his arms across his chest exasperated.  
  
Tails kind of blushed and nodded, obviously having not even thought of that before. He stood up with much difficulty and leaned against a tree, trying to regain his energy.  
  
Despite not liking this interruption he couldn't help thinking about that dream he'd had just before Tails got here. Was that all true or was it just his minds attempt to explain something he couldn't remember for the life of him? Aw well whatever the past was it didn't change his future, he'd be here for as long as the Emerald needed guarding, which he knew, would most likely be forever.  
  
THE END 


End file.
